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Here in the US most people couldn't afford to have a hand crafted home. As it stands,builders are given short time lines to build a building which is hard to make even using precut lumber and sheet goods. In my working career we went from wood work and fancy trims to concrete and sheet rock . Cost and time killed the handcrafted building industry. If there is some sort of fancy trim, the design is stamped into the wood. If you think someone is going to do custom work for your crappy $8 an hour,guess again

Of course all of your videos are inspirational as well as instructional, but from this one I always learn something new every time I watch it. I think this video shows the skills of the woodcarver as well as the carpenter. Of course, in Japan a distinction is made between different types of carpenters, and temple carpenters seem to be very special. In this video, I really appreciate 1) a display of all the tools for each job, and 2) how the tools are used. Very instructional!

I also appreciate the difference between the curves used in temple design and the simple straight lines that you see in classical Japanese interior design. Moreover, if you look at the shapes of the large pieces, they are structurally sound, deceptively simple but actually complex, and the carving adds a dimension to their complexity so that when assembled into a temple, the large beams, which do so much work, have a floating quality–almost like clouds.

Lastly, I wonder if some of the carving adds to the tensile strength of the beams? For instance the larger carved curves on the outside of the beams that follow the curve of the beams themselves, do they add to the strength? I think, also, that some if not all of the curved designs are inspired by Nature. What do you think?